10/20/10

Tom Waits Collaborates with Preservation Hall Jazz Band

Tom Waits has always been a singer-songwriter with an affinity for jazz and vintage music. His earliest recordings for Asylum often featured jazz sidemen and although he largely discarded the beatnik jazz hipster persona in the ‘80s, he’s continued to collaborate with adventurous jazz players such as Marc Ribot and Ralph Carney. In 2009, Waits went to New Orleans and recorded two songs for a compilation benefitting the Preservation Hall Jazz Band: Danny Barker's 1947 Mardi Gras Indian street chant "Tootie Ma Is a Big Fine Thing" and Barker’s “Corrine Died On The Battlefield.” Both songs are considered as some of the earliest known recordings of chants by the Mardi Gras Indians.

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Tom Waits

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Album cover of compilation to benefit Preservation Hall

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Preservation Hall Jazz Band

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On November 19, Waits is releasing the two renditions on a special edition 78 and even throwing in a 78 record player for buyers with deeper pockets. The two tracks will be packaged in a special limited edition 78 rpm format record, each signed and numbered by Preservation Hall Creative Director Ben Jaffe. The first one hundred records will be accompanied by a custom-made Preservation Hall 78rpm record player as part of a Deluxe Donation package of $200. The remaining four hundred and four will be available as a standalone record for the Basic Donation package of $50. The proceeds benefit the Preservation Hall Junior Jazz & Heritage Brass Band.